Capital Gains Manual

Taper relief

TCGA92/S2A, TCGA92/SCHA1 and FA2008/SCH2

Taper Relief applied to disposals chargeable to Capital Gains Tax from 6 April 1998 to 5 April 2008. It provided a mechanism by which gains on disposals were reduced or “tapered” according to how long they had been held for and whether or not they qualified as business assets. The rates of taper and the definition of business assets changed over the period.

The introduction of Taper Relief meant that indexation allowance was frozen from 1998 for CGT (before being abolished from 2008). It also replaced Retirement Relief and led to the suspension of share pooling.

Taper Relief itself was abolished as part of a CGT simplification package applying to disposals from 6 April 2008. FA08/S8 & SCH2.

Guidance on Taper Relief is no longer included in this manual. If you need to consider the deleted guidance then this is available from commercial tax information packages or directly from Capital Gains Technical Group.